Goldman Eyes $5 Billion Growth Plan; JPMorgan Calls Bitcoin A 'Fraud'

Goldman Sachs (GS) unveiled a plan to boost revenue by $5 billion over the next three years, targeting growth across its operations as the trading business remains weak throughout the industry.

XCOO Harvey Schwartz said at an industry conference Tuesday that trading in fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) is "still a pretty challenging environment" and that the market so far in Q3 "feels like the first and second quarter," according to the Financial Times.

But he added that Goldman can lift annual FICC revenue by $1 billion, financing and lending revenue by $2 billion, investment management revenue by $1 billion, investment banking by $500 million, and equities client coverage by $500 million. The additional $5 billion at the top line should add $2.5 billion to pretax earnings.

The breadth of the expected gains suggests Goldman may be looking beyond its vaunted trading desk to spark more growth, as persistent low market volatility continues to weigh on transactions.

JPMorgan and Citi had previously hinted at weak Q3 performance, and last month, Goldman CFO Martin Chavez said the low volatility seen in Q2 has spilled over into Q3, after reporting a 40% drop in Q2 FICC revenue.

On its Q2 earnings call in July, Goldman said it "didn't navigate the market as well as we aspire to or as well as we have in the past," echoing similar language on its Q1 call, when trading also suffered.

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